Generally damaged hair fibers and relatively undamaged hair fibers coexist on almost every head. Since the hair grows outward from the scalp it is constantly being subjected to mechanical damage, particularly from combing and brushing, and the detrimental action of sunlight, especially after contact with water containing chlorine. Also shampooing, permanent waving, coloring and especially treatments involving the use of hydrogen peroxide, all have an accumulative effect that causes hair older than one year (6 inches long) to have distal ends on each hair fiber that are more damaged than the proximal ends near the scalp.
Although the permanent waving of such hair can be done with conventional compositions, the areas of the damaged hair fibers must be segregated from the undamaged hair fibers and treated differently. This segregation is necessary for various well-known reasons. First, damaged hair, in general, and bleached chemically or colored hair, in particular, is much more susceptible to being broken by excessive handling. In addition, depending upon which of the seven independent, distinct and recognized stages of bleaching the hair fibers have attained, the chemical reactivity of these hair fibers will be significantly different from the reactivity of undamaged hair as well as from the reactivity of a bleach hair fiber at a different bleaching stage.
In certain types of bleached heads of hair, segregation of the different hair fibers is not possible. Prior to our invention, such heads of hair have never been able to be permanently waved.
For example, in the frosting of hair a cap is placed over the hair area of the scalp. This cap may have 300 or 400 small openings. Small bundles of hair fibers are pulled through these holes, the amounts of the hair and the location and number of the holes selected will depend on the pattern of frosting desired. The number of the individual hair fibers through each hole may vary from 50 to 250.
It is rare for more than half of the holes to be used, but it is possible to have as high as 50% of the hair bleached. These hair fibers, however, may be bleached to the highest of the recognized seven stages of bleaching. The highly bleached hair thus can represent up to 50% of the entire head and it would be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to segregate these sections in order to give them a different treatment, a different composition and/or a different method, in order to obtain a permanent wave without breakage.
It is the principal object of this invention to provide a permanent hair waving system wherein a head of hair having up to 50% bleached hair fibers can be permanently waved without requiring the hair to be segregated into groups of hair fibers of similar condition.
Another object of this invention is to provide a permanent hair waving system having the characteristic features defined above wherein the system is easy to use and easy to employ without requiring special training.
Another object of this invention is to provide a permanent hair waving system having the characteristic features defined above wherein frosted or tipped heads of hair can be permanently waved as easily and conveniently as unbleached heads of hair.
A further object of this invention is to provide a permanent hair waving system having the characteristic features defined above wherein heads of hair having unsegregatable mixed hair fibers of unbleached and varying stages of bleached hair fibers can be permanently waved as easily and conveniently as a head of hair having hair fibers of substantially uniform condition throughout.
Other and more specific objects will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.